Court Enters Final Judgment Against Tyson Williams and Stanley Parrish in Fraud Case

On July 18, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah entered final judgments against Tyson Williams and Stanley Parrish, both of whom were charged by the SEC in 2014 in connection with the sale of securities by ST Ventures, LLC. Among other remedies, the final judgments ordered the two defendants to pay over $4 million in monetary sanctions.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Williams and Parrish raised over $7 million from approximately 50 investors through the fraudulent and unregistered sale of securities in ST Ventures, LLC. The complaint alleged Williams and Parrish told investors that ST Ventures would purchase collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) and then leverage the CMOs to produce a large return for the investor within 30 to 90 days. The complaint further alleged that Williams and Parrish made material misrepresentations and omissions regarding the investment including, among other things, the risk of the investment and the use of investor funds. Williams and Parrish allegedly told investors that their investment principal would never be at risk of loss because investing in CMOs is a very safe and liquid investment and that investor funds would be used only to purchase CMOs. Instead of using investors’ funds as represented, the complaint alleged that virtually all payments made to investors, which totaled more than $1.5 million, came from new investor money and Williams and Parrish misappropriated over $3.5 million of investors’ proceeds for their personal use.

Both Williams and Parrish consented, without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, to the entry of the final judgments that included permanent injunctions from violating Sections 5 and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 10(b) and 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Honorable Dale A. Kimball also ordered Williams and Parrish, jointly and severally, to pay disgorgement of $3,111,484.89, prejudgment interest of $1,067,778.29, and a civil penalty in the amount of $130,000. The court’s entry of the final judgments concludes the SEC’s litigation of this matter in its entirety.